“Sir, the defense contractors are chafing at your plan to pull out of Syria.”

“Screw ‘em! Tell ‘em to start building airliners or something!”

“No sir. They built a new cruise missile that needs testing. And we need to get rid of the excess inventory of older missiles. Rebuilding the war stocks will stimulate the economy. Besides, if you don’t strike out at Syria now, we may not have another opportunity for a long time.”

“But I said I want out of Syria!!”

“Sir…. you wouldn’t want the stock market to crash, would you? And what about your lawyers?”

The dollar ended 2015 with a more than 9 percent annual gain against a basket of currencies on Thursday, despite falling in December, with portfolio rebalancing from asset managers leading the currency higher in thin trading.

Riding a rally dating to >>>May 2014,<<< the greenback has appreciated by a quarter in value against a basket of currencies and by 22 percent against the euro. For the year, the greenback rose over 10 percent against the euro for its second straight yearly gain.

On Thursday, the euro hit a more than one-week low against the dollar of $1.08530, with analysts attributing the move to purchases of dollar-denominated assets from money managers moving to meet minimum exposure requirements.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, hit a more than one-week high of 98.750. For the month, it fell 1.5 percent, its first decline in four months.

VERY VIP PONZI UPDATE= Hugh Hendry on the eve of 2015, informing us that China GDP was imploding, an event that would soon ignite a powerful stock rally in China=He called this of course “the power of imagined realities”

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Sunday, April 15, 2018

Shanghai surprise is the term I used back in 2015 to describe gamblers bidding up their own assets while pretending to be wealthy. In other words, it’s rented prosperity – the only kind that can abide in a pseudo-economy having a surfeit of capital at the expense of real demand. Therefore, surplus capital was recycled back into the economy as debt, to give the illusion of income. Now currently, every global risk asset class has been bid up, which is why no one is yelling fire in the crowded theater. No one wants the party to end…“The good news is that mankind clearly has the ability to suspend rational judgment long and often”Good news, if you’re Bernie Madoff. The quote above was attributatble to erstwhile hedge fund manager Hugh Hendry on the eve of 2015, informing us that China GDP was imploding, an event that would soon ignite a powerful stock rally in China, I have to admit I was a tad skeptical at the time. He called this of course “the power of imagined realities”. And he was right, in spades. Within months the Shanghai composite was vertical and soon day-trading housewives were pouring their life savings into Chinese small caps. They went straight up, and straight down. Moreover, it was a harbinger of a global risk bubble that was about to implode. Fast forward to today, and the signature imagined reality of this era is/was Bitcoin. Here we see Chinese small caps (red) circa 2015, and Bitcoin (blue) circa now. Identical. Biotech (grey) lagged a bit and then went risk off. Gamblers then sought the safe haven of big cap tech (lower pane), and then that imploded.

This dehumanization of financial markets is the genesis for cryptocurrencies and it is why retail participation in markets is in serious decline. The trend to less human involvement in order execution and in the investment decision-making process is an extremely dangerous trend that could lead to an irreversible migration of capital to alternative assets and this is manifesting itself here in 2018 with the volatility that began in February and accelerating into the latter half of 2018.

And that gets us to the meat of the matter. Donald Trump has now been taken hostage by the machinery of the Deep State and has become the tool of its destructive agenda.

For instance, John Bolton is an advocate of America Uber Alles—the very antithesis of America First. In fact, he is an emissary for what might be termed the “Bibi First” wing of the War Party.

Netanyahu’s entire misbegotten reign as head of the Israeli government has been based on demonizing Iran, thereby gluing together a motley coalition of rightwing religious and settler parties in the parliament.

In the present circumstances, the over-riding agenda of the “Bibi First” wing is to ashcan the Iranian Nuke deal when it comes up for certification on May 12.

That’s because an Iran that rejoins the community of nations, reengages in trade and commerce with the rest of the world and adheres to the nuke deal, which it has every intention of doing if Washington sticks to its end of the bargain, is an Iran that puts the lie to the entire demonization campaign that has been conducted by the neocons in Washington and Israel for the past 25 years.

Needless to say, that is a scenario that the War Party cannot abide. It would put Bibi Netanyahu out of business and severely erode the case for the hundreds of billions that are being wasted on Washington’s conventional military capacities.

After all, if Washington didn’t have the Persian Gulf to police or a dog in the Sunni-Shiite religious and political struggles, it wouldn’t be wasting $30 billion per pop on new aircraft carriers and their battle-group armadas.

So the Deep State has moved heaven and earth to bring the Donald into its thrall and to bury every vestige of his incipient pivot toward an honest and affordable national security policy based on America First.

If the Tomahawk cruise missiles fly toward Syria over the weekend [they did], we will know that the capture has been complete; and that the Oval Office is now occupied by a hostage of the very Deep State that he campaigned against, and which, in any event, will soon sacrifice him to the vengeful furies of the Mueller witchunt.

You know any information that proves Russia/Syria are not responsible, or that there were never any gas attacks will never be reported here in the west.

Not a peep about the Swiss report on the Skripal case from the MSM

Listened to an interview famous neocon General Jack Keane on FOX, he was disappointed that Trump isn’t going to escalate in Syria even more and that we are afraid of the Russians. Thinks we’re firing a few shots on our way out. I hope that’s true but I suspect John Bolton has other plans.

Regardless, big rally in the SM tomorrow, big crush in pm’s – it’s the American way.

The Russians may well be sitting back, but continously stirring, because they know it is only a matter of time before some very shoddy behavior by some in the UK gets fuly exposed….after all the new allegations about what Drug was used on the Skripals fit perfectly with what happened. A Novichok at 10 times the power of VX does not fit at all, it would have killed large numbers.

Then the OPCW will report on Syria/Douma and again the Russians are going way out, if a CW was used, they will look utter idiots and be pariahs forever.

If all this was a set up, then we may soon know and a lot of people are going to be very angry and demand lots of answers….